It is well known to provide for placement of advertising material in a tabletop in public places such as cafes, shops and bars. Display devices for this purpose are exemplified by the devices described in Australian Patent application AU200231466 and French Patent FR2276649.
The device described in AU200231466 adopts a well known principle of displaying an article under a transparent surface as is seen in for example, counter tops, display cases, tourist information desks and allows an advertisement to be removably retained beneath a viewing window in a tabletop. However, in order to remove and replace advertisements it is necessary to unscrew various threaded fasteners to allow removal of a plug from beneath the tabletop. With this mechanism it is time consuming to replace an advertisement held within the tabletop.
The device described in FR2276649 allows for the top surface of the table top to be lifted up in a hinging action to access the advertisement from above. The top surface is retained by an elastic clip at an edge opposite the hinged edge. Hence, unauthorised opening of the tabletop may easily be made by releasing the elastic clip.